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ver, and Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, eschewing the refinements and affecta­ Stream"). They are picking things up where the Parkers, Dolphys, Coltranes, tions of "classical" techniques, returned to jazz roots for inspiration, mainly the Bud Powells, and Scott LaFaros left things some years ago. blues and the mUSic ofthe black church. Into this setting stepped four saxophon­ ists who were in their own ways to change the face of jazz: Sonny Rollins, John Reprinted from MUSings: The Mustcal World ofGunther Schuller by permission ofOxford University Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, and Eric Dolphy. All four typified a revolt not only Press. Copyright © 1986 by Gunther Schuller. Cjas~'( L ~):s". free jazz" was the new revolutionary slogan. claim for two plays, Dutchman and The Slave, published together in 1964. During this Both Coleman and Dolphy immediately became the controversial eye of a period, he rejected the white literary tradition in favor ofexplOring themes of Black Na­ storm of revolution. While American and European intellectuals embraced tionalism. A decade later he renounced Black Nationalism, follOwing instead a path of Coleman, Miles Davis-at the advanced age of thirty-four-was putting Cole­ Marxist;-Leninist beliefs; he later abandoned these Communist leanings. Throughout his man down as a fraud; and others accused Dolphy of not "knowing his changes." distinguished career, Baraka has incorporated African-American music into all phases of (His "Stormy Weather" with Mingus is the best answer to that charge.) his creativity. He has written three books devoted solely to the development, history, and But the bitter reality was unmistakable: what little audience jazz had left by expression of African-American musical cultures: Blues People (1963), Black Music the late 1950s dropped out almost completely after the arrival of Coleman, when (1967), and The Music: &jlections onJazz and Blues (1987). In "The Ja7.z Avant-Garde" the novelty had worn off, and the avant-garde took over in force. In truth, it was (1961), Baraka identifies the rhythmiC, melodic, harmonic, and timbral advances made a difficult time for jazz. For every one Coleman, there were ten lesser or no­ by bebop musicians together with the most progressive wing ofjazz musicians, the jazz talents who sought refuge in the anarchy and permissiveness ofthe avant-gaede. avant-garde. He derides practitioners of the Third Stream, cool, and West Coast styles When in the mid-60s the rock revolution spread over the land like locusts, jazz as for their reliance on European models and practices. Baraka places a high value on musi· it was once known seemed to be emitting its last gasps. Even the avant-garde cians who seek a liberated approach to rhythmic material, greater inclusion ofbass and could barely retain its small audience, part ofit being Siphoned offby the Beatles drums, highly accented and disjunct melodic lines, elimination of functional chords and and other rock avant-gardists such as Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. Elec­ chord progressions, use of collective improvisation, and timbral imitation ofthe human trified instruments and electronic gimmickry pervaded popular music as its deci­ voice by instrumentalists. bel-level rose to ear-pierCing extremes. Suddenly the choice for millions seemed to be between perennials like Lawrence Welk or Guy Lombardo on the one There is definitely an avant-garde in jazz today. A burgeoning group of young hand, and the one-chord, Neanderthal, thumping inanities of thousands of rock men who are beginning to utilize not only the most important ideas in «formal" groups on the other. contemporary music, but more important, young musicians who have started to But once again the cyclical pendulum came to the rescue. At this writing, as a utilize the most important ideas contained in that startling music called bebop. new generation of youngsters moves into the jazz forefront, the vacuum left by (Of course I realize that to some'of my learned colleagues almost anything that the rock debacle and the vagaries of the avant-garde is being filled by a much­ came after 1940 is bebop, but that's not exactly what I meant.) And I think this needed reassessment ofthe immediate past. Audiences who discovered that the last idea, the use of bop, is the most Significant aspect of the particular avant­ «rock revolution" was more SOCiopolitical than musical are re-discovering jazz, garde I'm referring to, since almost any so-called modem musicians can tell you not only for itself, but as, 10 and behold, an early ancestor of rock (via Rhythm all about Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Bartok, etc., or at least they think they can. I and Blues). And the lessons bequeathed by Parker, Monk, and Bud Powell, say particular avant-garde since I realize that there is also another so-called "new which were largely left unlearned by most of the avant-garde, are being restud­ music," called by some of my more serious colleagues, Third Stream which seeks ied. The either-or conflict between free and structured jazz is no longer at issue; to invest jazz with as much "classical" music as blatantly as possible. But for the young players simply do both (as with the earlier controversy over "Third jazzmen now to have come to the beautiful and lOgical conclusion that bebop was _-...-..'"'*'~ .&~..vJ""""""'4.""""""#- --.~

perhaps the most legitimately complex, emotionally rich music to come out of musician. It is the ideas that one utilizes instinctively that determine the degree this country, is,for me, a brilliant beginning for a "new" music. of profundity any artist reaches. To know, in some way, that it is better to pay at­ Bebop is roots, now, just as much as blues is. "Classical" music is not. But tention to Duke Ellington than to Aaron Copland is part of it. (And it is exactly "classical" music, and I mean now contemporary Euro-American "art" music, because someone like Oscar Peterson has instinctive profundity that technique might seem to the black man isolated, trying to exist within white culture (arty or is glibness. That he can play the piano rather handily just makes him easier to whatever), like it should be "milked" for as many dqinitions as possible, i.e., so­ identify. There is no serious instinct working at all.) lutions to engineering problems the contemporary jazz musician's life is sure to To my mind, technique is inseparable from what is finally played as content. A raise. I mean, more simply, Ornette Coleman has had to live with the attitudes bad solo, no matter how "well" it is played is still bad. responsible for Anton Webern's music whether he knows that music or not. They Aphorisms: "Form can never be more than an extension of content." (Robert were handed to him along with the whole history of formal Western music, and Creeley) "Form is determined by the nature ofmatter.... Rightly viewed, order the musics that have come to characteriz~ the Negro in the United States came is nothing objective; it exists only relatively to the mind." (Psalidas) "No one who to exist as they do today only through the acculturation of this entire history. And can finally be said to be a 'mediocre' musician can be said to possess any tech­ actually knOwing that history, and trying to relate to it culturally, or those formal nique." (Jones) . Euro-American musics, only adds to the indoctrination. But jazz and blues are "Formal" music, for the jazz musician, should be ideas. Ideas that can make it Western musics; products ofan Afro-American culture. But the definitions must easier for this modern jazz player to get at his roots. And as I have said, the be black no matter the geography for the highest meaning to black men. And in strongest of these roots are blues and what was called bebop. They sit au­ this sense European anything is irrelevant. tonomous. Blues and bebop are musics. They are understandable, emotionally, We are, all of us, rrwderns, whether we like it or not. Trumpet player Ruby as they sit: without the barest discussion of their origins. And the reason I think Braff is responsible, finally, to the same ideas and attitudes that have shaped our for this is that they are origins, themselves. Blues is a beginning. Bebop, a begin­ world as Ornette Coleman. (Ideas are things that must drench everyone, ning. They define other varieties ofmusic that come after them. Ifa man had not wHether directly or obliquely). The same history has elapsed in the world for heard blues, there is no reason to assume that he would be even slightly inter­ both ofthem, and what has gone before has settled on both of them just as surely ested in, say, Joe Oliver (except perhaps as a curio or from some obscure social as ifthey were the same man. For Ornette Coleman, as it was for Charlie Parker conviction). Cannonball Adderley is only interesting because of bebop. And not or James Joyce, the relationship between their actual lives and their work seems because he plays bebop, but because he will occaSionally repeat an idea that bop direct. For Braff or for Charlie Parker and Bud Powell imitators or Senator once represented as profound. An idea that we love, no matter what the subse­ Goldwater, the relationship, the meaning, of all the ideas that history has stacked quent disfigurement. so wearily in front of them, and some utilization in their own lives, is less direct. The roots, blues and bop, are emotion. The technique, the ideas, the way of But if an atomic bomb is dropped on Manhattan, moldy figs will die as well as handling the emotion. And this does not leave out the consideration that cer­ modernists, and just because some cornet player looks out his window and says tainly there is pure intellect that can come out of the emotional experience and "what's going on" does not mean that he will not be in on things. He goes, too. (1 the rawest emotions that can proceed from the ideal apprehenSion of any hy­ am trying to explain "avant-garde." Men for whom history exists to be utilized in potheSiS. The point is that such displacement must exist as instinct. their lives, their art, to make something for themselves and not as an overpower­ To go further towards a general delineation of the musicians I will cite later as ing reminder that people and their ideas did live hefore us.) "How to play exactly part of a growing jazz avant-garde, I think first I should furnish at least two more what I feel," is what one of these musicians told me. How? (Which is a technical definitions, or distinctions. consideration. ) Using, or implementing an idea or concept is not necessarily imitation and, of Before 1 go further, I want to explain technical so as not to be confused with course, the converse is true; imitation is not necessarily use. I will say first that people who think that Thelonius Monk is "a fine pianist, but limited technically." use is proper, as well as basic. Use means that some idea or system is employed, But by. technical, I mean more specifically being able to use what important but in order to reach or understand quite separate and/or dissimilar systems. Im­ ideas are contained in the residue of history or in the now-swell ofliving. For in­ itation means simply reproduction (of a concept), for its own sake. Someone who stance, to be able to doubletime Liszt piano pieces might help one to become a sings exactly like Billie Holiday or someone who plays exactly like Charlie Parker musician, but it will not make a man aware of the fact that Monk was a greater (or as close as they can manage) produces nothing. Essentially, there is nothing composer than Liszt. And it is the consciousness, on whatever level, of facts, added to the universe. It is as if these performers stood on a stage and did noth­ ideas, etc., like this that are the most important part of technique. Knowing how ing at all. Omette Coleman uses Parker only as a hypothesis; his (Coleman's) to play an instrument is the barest superfiCiality if one is thinking of becoming a conclusions are quite separate and unique. Sonny Rollins has certainly listened JI\.t.t.I\NU rU'-UtAH LV1UML Ud.J.(1A«~ JI,. '''''"' J""'-"" L ....V ...... --- ~--

quite a bit to Gene Ammons, but Rollins' conclusions are insistently his own, and are almost identical to the rhythmiC underpinnings of the music. The same was are certainly mQ!e profound than Ammons'. A man who rides the IND to work true in bop. The very name bebop comes from an onomatopoetic attempt to re­ doesn't necessarily have to think he's a subway. (And a man who thinks he's a sub­ produce the new rhythms that had engendered this music, hence; bebop, and way is usually just crazy. It will not help him get to work either.) with that rebop. (While it is true that "scat" singing came into use in the early days of jazz, "bopping," the kind of scat singing (scatting) that became popular Reeds: Oroette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Wayne Shorter, Oliver Nelson, Archie during the '40s was more intent on reprodUcing rhythmic effects and as stich Shepp. making a melody out of them, e.g., OoShubeeDobee 00 00 or OoBopsh'bam-a­ Brass: Don Cherry, Freddie Hubbard. ke1J.kumop, etc. But even in the incunabula of jazz and blues, something like the Percussion: Btlly Higgins, Ed Blackwell, Dennis Charles (drums); Earl Grif­ chants and field hollers were little more than highly rhythmical lyriCS.) fith (vibraharp). One result ofthis "insertion" of rhythm into the melodic fabric of bop as well Bass: Wilbur Ware, Charlie Haden, Scott LaFaro, Buell Neidlinger, others. as the music of the avant-garde is the subsequent freedom allowed to instru­ Piano: Cecil Taylor. ments that are normally supposed to carry the entire rhythmic impetus of the Composition: Oroette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Wayne Shorter, Cecil Taylor.l music. Drum and bass lines are literally "sprung" ... away from the simple, cloy­ ing 414 that characterized the musics that came immediately before and after These are most of the people this essay intends to hamper with the nom de bop. And while it is true that the post-boppers took their impetus from bop, I guerre avant-garde. (There are a few others like Ken McIntyre whom I think, think the development of the cool school served to obscure the really valuable from the reports I've received, also belong in the group, but I've not yet had a legaCies of bop. RhythmiC diversity and freedom were the really valuable lega­ chance to listen.) The names in italics are intended to serve as further delin­ cies. The cool tended to regularize the rhythms and make the melodic line eation as far as the quality and quantity of these players' innovations. Hence, Or­ smoother, less "jagged," relying more on "formal" variation of the line in the nette Coleman sits by himself in the reeds, Dolphy in his groove and Shorter, strict theme and variation sense. More and more emphasiS was put on "charts" Nelson and Shepp in theirs. (There are more bass players than anything else sim­ and written parts. Formal European music began to be canonized not only as a ply because the chief innovator on that instrument, Wilbur Ware, has been means but as some kind of model. The insistence of Brubeck, Shorty Rogers, around longer and more people have had a chance to pick up.) Mulligan, John Lewis, that they could write fugues and rondoes or even impro­ But actually, this naming of names is not meant as a strict categorizing of vise them was one instance. The almost legitimate harmonies that were used in "styles." Each of these men has his own way of playing, but as a group they rep­ cool or West Coast jazz reminded one of the part singing tradition of Europe. resent,'at least to me, a definite line of departure. And groups like Shorty Rogers' Giants made a music that sounded like it came Melodically and rhythmically each of these players uses bebop extensively. out of an organ grinder, the variations and improvisations as regular and static as Coleman's "Ramblin'" possesses a melodic line the spatial tensions of which a piano roll. seem firmly rooted in 1940s Gillespie-Parker composition and extemporization. The "hard boppers" sought to revitalize jazz, but they did not go far enough The very jaggedness and abruptness of the melodic fabric itself suggest the bop­ Somehow, they had lost sight of the important items to be gotten from bop and pers' seemingly endless need for deliberate and agitated rhythmical contrast, substituted largeness of timbre and the recent insistence on quasi-gospel influ­ most of the melodies being almost extensions of the dominating rhythmical pat­ ences for actual rhythmic diverSity. The usual rhythms of the post-cool hard bop­ terns. Whistle "Ramblin'," then any early Monk, e.g., "Four in One" or "Humph" per of the '50s are amazingly static and smooth compared to the jazz of the '40s or Bird's "Cheryl" or "Confirmation," and the basic physical similarities of and the '60s. The rhythmic freedom of the '40s is lost in the '50s only to be redis­ melodic lines should be immediately apparent. There seems to be an endless covered in the '60s. Because rhythm and melody complement each other so changing of direction; stops and starts; variations ofimpetus; a "jaggedness" that closely in the "new" music, both bass player and drummer also can play "melodi­ reaches out of the rhythmic bases of the music. (It seems to me that only Jackie cally." They need no longer to be strictly concerned with thumping along, merely McLean of the post-bop "traditionalists" has as much linear contrast and rhyth­ carrying the beat. The melody itself contains enough rhythmic accent to propel mic modulation in his compositions and playing as the boppers, e.g., "Dr. and stabilize the horizontal movement of the music, giving both direction and JackIe," "Condition Blue," etc.) In fact, in bop and avant-garde compositions it impetus. The rhythm instruments can then serve to elaborate on the melody it­ seems as ifthe rhythmic portion ofthe music is inserted directly into the melodic self. Wilbur Ware's playing is a perfect example of this. And so it is that drum­ portion. The melody of Ramblin' is almost a rhythmiC pattern itself. Its accents mers like Blackwell, Higgins and Charles can roam around the melody, giving accent here, inferring actual melody elsewhere. Elvin Jones, in his recent work with John Coltrane, also shows that he understands the difference between play­ 1. See note at end ofessay. ing melody and "elegant" elaboration around a static rhythm. So if the heavily accented melody springs the rhythm section, it also gives the give each player his easily identifIable style. To name a few: the other soloists more room;to swing. The strict 414 is missing, and the hom men monies that Wayne Shorter employs in his writing and his integration of Rolllns' can even impro~e on the melodic efforts ofthe rhythm section. This is one rea­ use of space and John Coltrane's disdain for it; (Shorter's main trouble, it now son why in a group like Coleman's it seems as if they have gone back to the con­ seems, is The Jazz Messengers.) Vibist Earl Griffith's lovely discovery that tIDe cept ofcollective improvisations. No one's role in the group is asfixed as it was in can play the vibes like Lester Young, instead of continuing to imitate Milt Jack­ the "part singers" of the '50s. Everyone has a chance to play melody or rhythm. son's appropriation ofColeman Hawkins; GriffIth's light, gauzy tone and behind­ Cecil Taylor's left hand is used as much as a purely rhythmic insistence as it is for the-beat placement of his line all point to Pres and a fresh approach to vibes. the melodic-harmonic placement of chords. The left hand constantly varies the Charlie Haden's guitar player approach to the bass, even going as far, sometimes, rhythms his music is hinged on. Both Taylor and Coleman constantly utilize mel­ as strumming the big instrument; Don Cherry's fantastic melodic sense (I think odic variations hased on rhythmic figures. Bebop proved that so c:illed "changes," that Cherry is the only real innovator on his instrument). Archie Shepp'S refusal i.e., the repeated occurrence ofcertain chords basic to the melodic and harmonic to admit most of the time that there is a melody or Oliver Nelson's use of R&B structure ofa tune, are almost arbitrary. That is, that they need not be stated, and and so called "Mickey Mouse" timbres to beautiful effect. All these are separate that since certain chords infer certain improvisatory uses ofthem, why not impro­ facets of this new music, an amassing of talent and ideas that indicate a fresh vise on what the chords infer rather than playing the inference itsel£ road for jazz. The greater part of the avant-garde's contribution is melodic and rhythmiC; The first music Negroes made in this country had to be African; its subse­ only a few have made any notable moves harmonically, though Coleman and quent transmutation into what we know as blues and the parallel development of Dolphy tend to utilize certain ideas tbat are also in use in contemporary "Euro­ jazz demonstrated the amazing flexibility of the basic character of the music. pean" music, notably, timbre as a harmonic principle. That is, where the actual But to move as far away from the parent music as popular swing, or so-called sound ofthe hom, regardless of the note, contributed unmeasured harmonic di­ West Coast jazz, or even into the artificially exciting, comparatively staid regu­ versity. (Also check out the hard blues singer, as afirst. John Coltrane has done lar rhythms of hard-bop traditionalism demonstrates how the African elements some marvelous work in harmonics as well.) Nelson, Shepp and Shorter also, to a of the music can be rendered almost to neutrality. Blues was the initial Afro­ lesser degree, utilize this concept, and even stranger, Shorter and Nelson have American music, and bebop the reemphasis of the non-western tradition. And if learned to utilize the so called "honking" sounds of the rhythm and blues bands the latter saved us from the vapid wastes of swing, singlehandedly, the new to great effect. No~ng was wrong with honking in the first place, except that avant-garde (and John Coltrane) are saving us from the comparatively vapid '50s. most of the R&B people who honked did little else. And they both utilized the same general methods: getting the music back to its It is also important that all of the reed players I have named are intrigued by initial rhythmic impetuses and away from the attempts at rhythmiC regularity the sound of the human voice. And it is my idea that jazz cannot be removed too and melodic predictability that the '30s and the '50s had lain on it. far from the voice, since the whole concept of Afro-American music is hinged on vocal references. Earlier, I mentioned my beliefthat bebop and blues are almost Note [1967): This was a piL1:ure of a newly forming avant-garde, 1961 or thereabouts. For the most autonomous musics. To add some weight, or at least prOvide a measure ofclarifi­ part, it proved accurate, but some of the musicians listed were given more credit, than their later cation, I'd add that not only are_blues and bebop the two facets ofAfro-American perfonnances, lives, etc. have proved out, usually hecause at the time they were moving under the music that utilize the rhythmic potentials of the music most directly, but also influence ofsome ofthe real innovators and movers. Some of this list have, already, either died (Scott they are the two musics in which the vocal traditions of African music are most LaFaro, one of arnette's many white bassists. Earl Griffith, a really fantastic vibes player, who got apparent. Purely instrumental blues is still the closest western instruments can there way before Bobby Hutcherson ... and of course Eric Dolphy, one of the grimmest musical losses ofthis grim little age) or dropped out of the jazz thing for other things-Buell Neidlinger, to come to sounding like the human voice, and the horns of Charlie Parker, Sonny work in a symphony orchestra; when the piece was written he was working with Cecil Taylor. When Rollins, John Coltrane and most of the reed players of the new avant-garde you ask about a white musician once prominent in jazz, "Well, what ever happened to ..." chances maintain this tradition as well. The timbres of these horns suggest the human are he's gone back to European music, in one capacity or another, ,,;z, Neidlinger and Don Ellis (and voice much more than the "legitimate", i.e., white, instrumental sound of swing for these two there are many many more) or into the lucrative studio gigs, television, radio, movies, or the staid, relatively cool timbres that were in evidence post-bop. (and music executive bigs like Director of Music of the Play Boy Clubs or of MGM) that have never really opened to black musicians. Others like Wilbur Ware had dues to pay that were just too strong, 1 mention these general aspects of what I have termed the avant-garde, i.e., or like Oliver Nelson, occasionally, they have taken their talents and gone on over to Marlboro their rhythmic and melodic concepts and the use of timbral effects to evoke the Country, where all dee big dough is. vocal beginnings ofjazz, but only to show a line of demarcation. There are cer­ tainly a great many "new" features individual players possess that are not com­ Reprinted from LeRoi Jones, Black MusiC (1967). by permission of Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. mon to the group as a whole, individual discoveries and/or idiosyncracies that Copyright © 1961 by Amiri Baraka.